Stirrup mats are used in connection with reinforced concrete products in order to provide added shear stress reinforcement for the concrete. A stirrup mat typically comprises a mat formed of a wire grid having a series of reinforcement prongs attached to the wire so as to extend at right angles to the plane of the mat. A stirrup mat is generally attached by wire ties to one of two concentric wire grid reinforcement cages used for the reinforced concrete. The mat may be attached to the inner or outer side of either wire cage, with the prongs extending between the cages. In either case, it is customary for the wire grid of the stirrup mat to be fastened to the reinforcement cage by flexible wire ties. This is a very time consuming process and involves a substantial amount of manual labor. It would be desirable to have a stirrup mat that simply clips into position in a wire cage, but this has been difficult to achieve because it is necessary that the stirrup mat be secured firmly in place and not be dislodged by fairly strong forces of the type that a stirrup mat is routinely subjected to. Moreover, the wire spacing of reinforcement cages is irregular, so it is not possible to employ clips that require a specific cage wire position or spacing.
An object of the present invention is to provide an easy to assemble self locking stirrup mat that is held securely in place by a snap-on, self-locking attachment mechanism and is compatible with cage wires of varying spacing.